


Artistic License

by Ronile



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-12
Updated: 2013-06-12
Packaged: 2017-12-14 19:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/840451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ronile/pseuds/Ronile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Wrath of Khan Dr McCoy must write his official report to Starfleet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artistic License

Artistic License

 

The clock blinks, mocking me.

 

02:37.

 

I should be asleep, but there will be no rest tonight, not for me, or for anyone else on this ship. Starfleet want the report by 09:00 tomorrow, the whole story, complete and unbiased.

 

I read over the words for what feels like the thousandth time, the report is nearly finished. There is just one part left - Spock's death. I rub my eyes, the memory is too recent, too raw. I don't want to think about it, not now, but I must.

 

I shouldn't even be doing this, it's the Captain's job. The Captain. Jim. One look at his face and I offered to do this for him. It is hard for me, but for him it would be a thousand times worse. He needs to rest. Except that he doesn't, not really, he needs Spock. The two of them together, as it always has been and always should be. The most unlikely friendship in the universe.

 

I force myself to write. I recall Spock trying to enter the chamber, his fingers on my neck, and then nothing more. Nothing until Jim runs into the room, jolting me into action.

 

I remember him fighting against me, fighting to open the door. Stopping him was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The moment when he collapsed in my arms, the unbeatable man, defeated at last. I will never forget that moment.

 

Slowly Jim had approached the glass, _you're ok Spock, you're going to be ok,_ his face pleaded. They had spoken then, in voices both soft and desperate. They were not words meant for my ears, but I heard them nonetheless.

 

“ _I have been and always shall be your friend_.”

 

Your friend. That was what I had believed, what they had told themselves, right up until that moment. A moment which I shall never forget.

 

A moment which Starfleet have no right to but their noses into. Spock's final act of courage had been meant for one man only, and yet Starfleet demanded every detail in words as cool and clinical as the morgue slab on which Spock now lay.

 

I can't do it, I realise that now. It wouldn't be fair, not to either of them. So I will lie. I will lie to protect them. To protect Spock's memory and Jim's career.

 

I type the final words. “Captain Spock raised his hand to the glass in the traditional Vulcan parting gesture. This action was mirrored by Admiral Kirk.”

 

There, it was done, the lie that would go down in history. I would be the only man ever to know that the Vulcan had held not four, but two fingers to the glass.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Anyone confused by the ending is directed here: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Vulcan_finger-touching


End file.
